“Somehow, we do that.
“Somehow, we resist and witness
“A nation that is not broken, but simply unfinished.”
It captured the national climate, earning instant respect and world fame. But Gorman’s poetry and his activist inclinations do not emerge from a vacuum. Instead, it is part of a continuum of writers, particularly performance poets of color, who used poetry to inspire political action, relying on their art and their platforms to draw attention to the issues of the day.
“Politics is the official business of trying to live together. And this is a very rich subject for poetry, ”said Elizabeth Alexander, a former inaugural poet and president of the Mellon Foundation, the country’s biggest supporter of the arts and humanities. “The poems visualize what is to come. Poems shed light so that we can see ahead. “
Previous inaugural poets have made similar calls for unity – but never at such a tense time in American politics. When Maya Angelou read her poem, “On the Pulse of the Morning”, at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, she spoke about America’s colonial history and its unequal impact on Native Americans and African Americans, but urged other ethnic, religious groups and social to “put down roots … near the river”, and work together as a nation.
Activism has always been an integral part of Gorman’s life. In interviews, she talked about how her mother raised her and her brothers through a lens of social justice. At their private, predominantly white school, Gorman and his twin sister revolted to protest the lack of diversity in their English class curriculum. As a teenager, she was a UN delegate and founded a non-profit organization, One pen, one page, a platform for “for storytelling students to change the world”.
Writing poetry, she told the Harvard Crimson, is an inherently activist act. “The staff is political,” said the Harvard graduate. The fact that you have the luxury as a white man to write all your poems about being lost in the forest, that you don’t have to question race and gender, is a political statement in itself. “
Gorman, the youngest award-winning poet at 22, is part of a long line of colored performance poets who used the verse as a weapon in their activism: Gwendolyn Brooks. Nikki Giovanni. Amiri Baraka. Miguel Piñero. Allurist. Miguel Algarín, co-founder of New York’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Gil Scott-Heron married politics to poetry, putting everything at a vibrant pace. His contemporaries, The Last Poets, emerged from the Black Arts and Black Power movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s, using drums to punctuate fierce and powerful poems. Together with Scott-Heron, they are considered the godparents of rap. And today, Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar, who incorporates the spoken word in his music, is a muse for the Movement for Black Lives.
On Wednesday, Gorman carried that legacy with her. Standing on the podium with his red bandana and caged bird ring, Gorman recited verses about the January 6 uprising that took place on the same staircase where she spoke. It was a moment, she said in interviews, which changed the focus of her poem and inspired her to convey a message of unity, while highlighting the clear divisions in the country.
“We saw a force that would destroy our nation, instead of sharing it. It would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy, ”she recited, referring to the riots on Capitol Hill. “And this effort almost worked. But while democracy can be periodically postponed, it can never be defeated permanently. ”
His words reverberated across the inaugural stage and across the nation, and millions of people grasped his call for unity in a medium free from partisanship or high political rhetoric. Praise received: Morgan State University offered her a position as a resident poet. Hillary Clinton endorsed his presidential aspirations. Both of Gorman’s next books, which are not due for release until September, are Amazon’s bestsellers, ranking # 1 and # 2 on the site.
In addition, the risks and pressure of writing a poem at the moment have not been lost by other poets, including those more experienced than Gorman. Jericho Brown, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and professor at Emory University, where he also serves as director of his creative writing program, said he and Gorman read at an event a few years ago. When he saw her recite at a younger age, Brown said, he knew that his poetry career would flourish. The perfect infusion of politics in his poetry, he said, was powerful – and perfect.
“For me, politics is so important that it is not important,” he said. “I think of politics for my poetry in the same way that I think of breathing for my body. When I’m breathing, I don’t think about it. I do this because it needs to be done. “
Danez Smith, a black, queer writer, performer and National Book Award finalist, agrees.
“I’m from the school that thinks everything is political if you look at it from the right angle,” they said. “I think of my art in a political sense, but also that much of what I write responds to the world, both in my own life and in a broader sense.”
The popularity of Gorman’s poetry, evidenced by the millions of Twitter followers and book orders she received, is also a reflection of her influence on conventional conversations. Andrew Anabi, founder of Pool House, a New York-based poetry collective that posts inspirational poems on his website and social media, said Gorman’s words are emblematic of the role that poetry can play in a time of general isolation. Poetry has a lot of value, especially now, he explained, because it is a “direct way of talking about difficult conversations”.
“In such a fast world, [poetry] can really stop you on your way, ”said Anabi. “It can get people to pay attention.”